In the final weeks before the B.C. government decided to sell BC Rail for $1-billion to Canadian National Railway, a lobbyist in Victoria made an elaborate plan to try and influence the deliberations of cabinet.
Working with two top ministerial aides, Dave Basi, then an assistant to finance minister Gary Collins, and Bob Virk, who worked for then transportation minister Judith Reid, lobbyist Erik Bornman strategized on how to turn key cabinet ministers against CN.
The plan is outlined in documents obtained by The Globe and Mail and CTV through the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The material, which was to be released broadly to the media on Thursday, was reviewed in advance by The Globe in preparing an application for the release of the material.
The documents show that in a remarkable meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel, just a few blocks from the legislature, Erik Bornman, a partner in Pilothouse Public Affairs, Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk drafted a plan to sway cabinet.
Ultimately the strategy failed and it is not clear how far the three men went in pursuing it.
Mr. Bornman, who turned Crown witness to avoid prosecution for bribing Mr. Basi, laid out the strategy in an interview with RCMP Sgt. Pat Finner.
“I'm going to show you a document...drawn on the letterhead of Hotel Grand Pacific and not dated. Can you comment on this document?” Sgt. Finner asked.
“We had a meeting and I believe it was in September of 2003. ...David Basi, myself, and Bob Virk and I'm not certain whether Brian or Jamie [Pilothouse partners Brian Kieran and Jamie Elmhirst] were there. ...We were going into the stretch run on the OmniTRAX project ...the matter . . . was going to be decided at cabinet and we ...laid out a strategy for how we would touch as many cabinet ministers as possible with our key messages about what we thought were the positives of the OmniTRAX bid,” Mr. Bornman said.
“This diagram centered out five people who were responsible for talking...to certain individuals,” he said, before reeling off a list of cabinet ministers. “Dave was going to talk to Barry Penner, whom he had a relationship with, and with Kevin Falcon...he was going to meet with Pat Bell and Blair Lekstrom...and he was going to coach them as to how to approach Dick Neufeld and Shirley Bond...and try and obtain their support and build some solidarity.”
Mr. Bornman said the plan was to rally the northern caucus of Liberal MLAs against CN, which had emerged as the top bidder.
“We were going to go after three of the most political members of cabinet who we gauged would want to be seen as doing a favor for the northern caucus...Christy Clark, Rich Coleman and Graham Bruce,” he said. “So the idea would be to coach Lekstrom and Bell in turn to coach the northern caucus... and then make representations to Clark, Coleman and Graham Bruce. And there was an opinion if we got to Rich Coleman that he would be able to deliver Bill Barisoff as well...I'd indicated that if I spoke with Christy Clark, I would be pushing our case as well. . .So that's essentially what that was,” he said.
“Is the document in your handwriting?” Sgt. Finner asked.
“It is...I'm fairly certain that I arranged for the hotel room at the Grand Pacific ...and invited Basi and Virk to come over and strategize,” Mr. Bornman said.
He went on to say that Mr. Basi had been pushing for a plan to derail CN’s bid.
“Basi in particular had been quite aggressive ...had complained that in his mind...he and Virk were the only people that were aggressively pushing this file inside government...it was drafted by myself in their presence...this was a plan that was working toward a common objective of ours which was the success of the OmniTRAX bid,” Mr. Bornman said.
In return for agreeing to testify truthfully, the Crown agreed not to charge Mr. Bornman. He never had to take the stand, however, because last fall Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk entered surprise guilty pleas on charges of breach of trust and accepting benefits. They were sentenced to two years less a day, under house arrest.
